Howson wins 2017 Herald Sun Tour

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Ian Stannard claimed Team Sky’s third win of the 2017 Herald Sun Tour into Kinglake after a late attack from the breakaway. Race leader Damien Howson (Orica-Scott) matched the last lap attacks of Chris Froome (Team Sky) to seal his first professional victory.

The win is Howson's first of his career and ensures the Australian team claims one of the three big races on home soil after second places at nationals, Tour Down Under and Cadel Evans race.

In the race for the stage, Stannard's early celebration almost saw him lose the victory on the finish line with Aaron Gate (Aqua Blue Sport) and Taco van der Hoorn (Rompot-Nederlandse Loterij) almost catching him on the line due to a relaxed celebration. Howson crossed the line in 20th place with his hands in the air to signify his overall victory.

"It's a big sigh of relief now. It's been an amazing week and to finish it off the way we did, I couldn't be happier," Howson said.

"I knew that as long as I had Esteban [Chaves] with me on that final climb, it was going to be pretty simple to control and maintain the overall lead. That is what happened today and everyone just went further than they needed to and made my day as easy as possible which was fantastic."

Having overcome a late puncture on stage 2 that almost ended his dreams of yellow, Howson then survived two near crashes on stage 3. A somewhat stress-free day on stage 4 followed with Howson's number 13 dossard proving not to be an unlucky omen.

"It always crosses your mind but it is a matter of keeping calm and it was either going to happen or it wasn't," he said.

"Luck was on my side today and number 13 didn't count for anything."

Froome's four-year record of starting his season with a stage race win was broken as he was unable to improve on his sixth place. However, last year’s champion was full of praise for how his team rode in winning three stages.

"We are here to race, of course, we were here to try and win as well so they did a great job. We hit them with everything we had today and they defended it really well," said Froome.

Jai Hindley (Australia) held onto his second place overall, and with it the best young rider classification, while Team Sky's Kenny Elissonde kept third place. Ben Hill (Attaque Gusto) won the King of the Mountains jersey, as NSW Institute of Sport celebrated winning the points jersey via Jake Kaufman in its first UCI race.

How it unfolded

After several days of hot conditions, the riders were greeted with wet weather on arrival in Kinglake. The inclement weather saw the neutral zone increased due to the wet roads, while an oil spill meant that the final GC time would be taken with three kilometres to go and not on the finish line.

After an aggressive start, a group of 12 riders got clear and were joined by five others to form the 18-man break on lap two. They built a lead of over four minutes. The riders in the breakaway were Stannard, Tim Ariesen and Taco van der Hoorn (Rompot), Sergey Nikolaev (Gazprom-Rusvelo), Tanner Putt and Travis McCabe (UnitedHealthcare), Aaron Gate and Larry Warbasse (Aqua Blue Sport), Ali Slater (JLT Condor), Tim Guy and Ben Hill (Attaque Gusto) Cyrus Monk (Drapac-Pat's Veg), Darcy Ellerm-Norton (St George), Jason Christie, James Oram and Sam Dobbs (New Zealand national team), Robbie Hucker (IsoWhey Sports SwissWellness), and Dan Fitter (NSW Institute of Sport).

Over the first two KOM's Ben Hill took maximum points to secure the mountains classification on his 28th birthday with the breakaway working well together and swapping turns

With 40km to race at the base of the KOM for the third time, the leaders’ advantage over the Orica-controlled peloton was down to 3:26 minutes. On the climb, Fitter was the first rider to try and split the group and drop the riders he felt were no longer contributing to the breakaway.

In the peloton, Froome, Elissonde and Rowe attacked the third time up the climb but the dangerous trio were brought back. Hill, Hucker and van der Hoorn went solo at the head of the race but the front group came through together for the bell lap. The Orica-led peloton that splintered on the climb rolled through two minutes in arrears.

The breakaway continued to attack itself and was down to the six men of McCabe, Stannard, Monk, van der Hoorn, Gate, and Slater with 21km to go and a lead of 2:30 minutes. Orica continued to lead the peloton before the Australian national team chipped in to lend a hand.

With 10km to race, the gap had dropped to two minutes as the riders approached the final ascent of the climb. The gap continued to fall as Simon Gerrans turned the screws.

At 4.8km to go, Froome launched his move with Howson first to react, followed by Elissonde and Hindley. Sebastian Henao then attacked for Sky with the breakaway in sight. The GC battle was over with no change to the top standings.

At the head of the race, Stannard drove the break after cresting the KOM then launched his winning move proving his strength as the sole WorldTour rider in the break. The classics man took his time to celebrate as he sat up inside 100 metres to go and almost lost it on the line to his breakaway companions.

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